Some people stop at garage sales.
Others decelerate when they spot a police car.
I brake for bakeries.
Oh purveyors of pies and pastries, deliverers of doughnuts, cupcakes, and densely baked bread, suppliers of all things sweet and savory – you have my heart!
And I’m about to get it back.
I didn’t make any dietary New Year’s resolutions this year because by mid-February I stall out, like those through-the-Bible-in-a-year plans that have me bogged down in Leviticus. (Feel free to quiz me on Genesis, though, which I’ve read at least 50 times.)
But here’s the thing, y’all. I am prone to eat what I want, when I want it without regard to whether it falls into any food group other than Frosted, Buttered, and Toasted. You can get away with that when you’re a kid, but I’m slightly beyond the Happy Meal set. (Well, duh!)
No resolutions this year, only revelations. Here’s the first.
I CAN’T EAT LIKE THAT ANYMORE.
Oh sure, I know how to dress to try to disguise the jumbo doughnut that’s settled around my waist. Point a camera in my direction? I’ll do a quick quarter-turn to present less of myself to the world (for a world that could care less, so go figure.) And don’t get me started on the torture of shimmying into industrial-strength shapers, also known as girdles back-in-the-day. (I have a drawerful and trust me, they are tricky to resell on Ebay.)
Call me a slow learner, but hauling fewer pounds around might just have additional benefits beyond lowering my red-zone cholesterol.(By way of explanation, refer back to Frosted, Buttered, and Toasted.)
Discipline, which shares the same root word as discipleship, likewise has spiritual blessings I’ve been missing.
In his classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes, “We should have no carelessness about us, either in the way we worship God or even in the way we eat and drink. Not only must our relationship to God be right, but the outward expression of that relationship must also be right.”
Chambers is not speaking of legalism – thinking of ourselves as more righteous because of what we eat or drink (or not). Rather, his words remind me of the importance of intentionality – fueling my body mindfully rather feeding my face carelessly. While I’ve never met a bakery I didn’t like, I need to learn to prefer produce as much as I crave cupcakes.
So here’s my conclusion, friends – not a resolution for me to break, but a revelation to make me intentional about the changes I want to see this year.
IT STARTS NOW.
Regular exercise. A rich spiritual diet. Healthy food choices.
Does this mean certain foods are bad? Taboo? Verboten? That’s true of many diets, but diets don’t work for me. (The first three letters of the word provide the clue.)
Healthy eating reflects instead the wisdom that the apostle Paul shared with the Corinthians:
“You say, ‘I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial.” 1 Cor. 10:23
First steps for me?
Sharing this with you, my friends – the transparency of accountability.
I’ve also recently become acquainted with a terrific organization called First Place for Health. Thanks to them I’m meeting online each week with a small group of women from across the country for prayer, Bible study, and mutual encouragement. We track our physical and spiritual activity as well as our food choices, and each week we snap a photo of our feet on the scale to send to our leader. More accountability – a discipline I need. And one I welcome.
Maybe New Year’s resolutions don’t work for you either. But has God given you a revelation instead, maybe one as simple as “I don’t have to brake for bakeries anymore?”
Share it in the comments below, won’t you? Let’s do this together.
Copyright 2020 Maggie Wallem Rowe